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Woody’s Other Woman: A Study In Scarlett

Actress Scarlett Johansson—as you’ve never seen her before.

June 1, 2010 12:00 AM

Scarlett Johansson isn’t the most likely person to portray Buster Keaton. But, then, such was the point of this portrait series, captured by Tim Walker and conceived over a boozy dinner in France last year. “We had just shot the Moët & Chandon ad campaign together,” recalls Johansson, “and we were sampling the product—excessively.” Somewhere around their third bottle, they agreed it would be fun to do a story based on cinematic icons. Photographed over 14 hours, it would eventually include such personas as Marlene Dietrich, Sarah Bernhardt, Giulietta Masina in Fellini’s La Strada, and the aforementioned Keaton. Elvis, who was at the top of Johansson’s wish list, was ultimately scrapped. “It just didn’t look appealing,” Walker explains—“appealingly beautiful or appealingly horrific.”—Karin Nelson